AC honors Amarillo CPA with Distinguished Alumnus of 2014 award

Sam Lovelady, a CPA and partner of Lovelady, Christy & Associates accounting firm, has been selected as Amarillo College’s Distinguished Alumnus of 2014.

“AC is a huge blessing to me,” he said. “As I look at all the great things in my life, there are a lot of links that go all the way back to Amarillo College.”

Lovelady graduated from Tascosa High School and attended AC and from 1973 through 1975, an experience he said gave him the opportunity to receive more support than he would have at a larger college.

“I had considered lots of different options, but AC was the net that caught me,” Lovelady said. “AC was there for me, and even though that was not my original plan, it turned out to be a great place for me to be.”

Lovelady took his first accounting course at AC and met his future firm partner, Mark Christy, during a freshman class at AC. He went on to study accounting at West Texas A&M University before becoming a CPA.

Lovelady has been active in the community, serving on the Amarillo Independent School District board of trustees from 1990 to 2002, as chairman of the Amarillo Area Foundation board and as a member of the Harrington Foundation board. He also has served as president of both the Amarillo Symphony board and the Opportunity School board of directors, as well as serving as vice chairman of the board for Downtown Amarillo Inc.

Lovelady recently established an AC scholarship in honor of his mother, Patricia Ann Brewer Lovelady, for students who are caring for their families while attending AC.